Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Well something happened Week Five: some combination of boiled over disappointment and impending bye weeks led to the craziest 16 hour trading period I think Hazelweird has ever had. There were five trades involving six different teams and 22 players (one player was traded twice during this time), including several superstars. Usually when this many players move around this quickly, we call it two rounds of a draft.

Here for your edification is a chronicle of what just the hell happened.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Cross Country StandingsEach week, every team competes against every other team. If there are ten teams in the league, the team with the most points that week defeated everybody else, thus going 9-0. The team with the second-most points defeated eight other teams, but lost to one team, thus going 8-1. Yada Yada Yada, the team with the least points was defeated by everybody, thus going 0-9.

These are the wins and losses for the single week. For the season standings, wins and losses from every week continue to be added up. Each week, your wins and losses for that week are added to your wins and losses for the season total.

Teams scoring the same number of points in a single week have a tie, and a tie will be included in the standings for the week and the season.

2. ChampionshipThe manager of the team with the MOST WINS for the season is declared the Hazelweird Champion.1st tie-breaker: if two teams have the same number of wins, the team with the fewest losses (e.g., best winning percentage) is declared the Hazelweird Champion.2nd tie-breaker: if two teams have the same number of wins and losses, the team with the most total points is declared the Hazelweird Champion.

AP Recognition: The team with the most total points for the season is recognized with an AP title. This is not a league championship, but recognition for a secondary accomplishment.

Playoff Cup: in weeks 14-17, we will have a 10-team playoff to determine the Playoff Cup. Seeds will be based on HW standings going into week 14. In Week 14, there will be play-in games, followed by a conventional eight-team bracket in Weeks 15, 16, and 17.

Simple bracket

Week 14: 8 vs 9 and 7 vs 10 (play in games)

Week 15: 1 vs (8vs9); 4 vs 5; 3 vs 6; 2 vs (7vs10)

Week 16: Semi-finals (winners tradition bracket style)

Week 17: The Playoff Cup Champion crowned

The Playoff Cup is not the league champion, but is awarded recognition for a secondary accomplishment.

4. Roster and LineupRosters consist of 16 positions.There are NINE positions required to fill a starting lineup: QB, WR, WR, RB, TE, W/T, W/R, K, D. While you are required to draft 16 players during the draft, you are not required to draft all nine starting positions. The remaining seven positions are bench positions and can be filled with any positions. You must fill all 16 positions during the draft. After the draft, you are allowed to carry fewer than 16 players on your roster at any time. After the draft, you are no longer required to carry all nine starting positions at all times.

A weekly lineup consists of QB, WR, WR, RB, TE, W/T, W/R, K, and D. There is no specific deadline to have your entire roster for a week set. However, in order to start a particular player in Week A, you must have that player in the lineup prior to his team’s game during Week A.

IF/THEN RULE

Sometimes, league members have obligations which make it difficult or impossible to follow injury updates and make necessary lineup changes just before games. The Hazelweird League attempts as much as is reasonable to accommodate members when this situation arises. Typically, if a player's status is in doubt, we allow members to send a mass email to the league, along lines such as 'If X plays I want to start X, but if he doesn't I want to start Y.' League commissioner(s) are able to retroactively adjust lineups.

This is not a policy to be abused, and is fairly limited; we attempt to use this only for players' whose playing status is in doubt, and only when obligations prevent members from following and finding out about injuries that morning. In its limited capacity, it may be used for any game starting time or day (but is subject to the rule requiring the substitution player to play at the same time or later than the initial player).

In a "If Player X plays I'll start Player X, but if he doesn't I'll start Player Y" scenario, Player Y's game must start at the same time or later than Player X's game; you cannot substitute a player whose game occurs prior to Player X's game.

TEAM KICKER RULEYou are allowed to carry multiple placekickers from the same NFL team without affecting your 16 spot roster limit. All placekickers from the same NFL team count as one roster spot.

However, you are only allowed one placekicker in your starting lineup. Therefore you must choose which kicker to start for an individual game.

5. Auction DraftAuction drafts will be the preferred format of the Hazelweird League.

Each manager begins the draft with a $300 salary cap. The manager must reserve money to pay a minimum of $1 for each of the 16 required positions. This means that the most money a manager can bid on one player at any time is X minus remaining roster spots plus one, which is here called “Maximum Bid.” Otherwise, the money may be distributed in whatever way the manager sees fit.

The seating order will be determined by an agreed upon system at time of the draft. When seated, we will go around the table in order, with each manager throwing out a player to be bid on, with the manager starting the bidding with a minimum bid of $1. There are no “cents:” all bidding must be made in whole numbers, an increase of at least $1. You may increase the bid by more than $1.

For each new player thrown out, each manager begins with an open cup, which declares to the other managers that he is in the bidding. At any point, a manager may flip his cup upside-down, which declares him to be out of the bidding for that player. Once your cup is flipped on the bidding for Player A, you cannot re-enter the bidding for Player A. Bidding goes around the table until one manager has made a high bid, and all other managers have flipped their cups. The player being bid on goes to the manager who bid the highest amount, and that amount is subtracted from his salary cap.

Once a manager wins the auction for a player, each manager still in the auction must flip his cup back to the open side, and another player will be thrown out by the manager whose turn is next (according to the seating order, who is sitting clockwise or counterclockwise to the last manager to throw out a name).

Once the amount of the bid reaches a manager’s Maximum Bid, he is automatically removed from the bidding (he must flip his cup).

When it is your turn to throw out a player, you are allowed to pass. If a manager passes, it is the manager next to him who gets to throw out the next player. However, if all other managers in the auction pass consecutively, the first person to pass must throw out a name.

Each manager is in the bidding until his 16 position roster is filled. When your roster is filled, you are out of the auction, which continues with the remaining managers who have not yet completed their roster. Any salary cap money remaining when you fill the roster is lost.

If you attempt to throw out a player who has already been thrown out earlier and is now on a roster, you must get drinks for people for a specified amount of time (not during actual bidding).

6. Snake DraftIn the event that an Auction draft cannot be reasonably held, we will have a Snake Draft.

A snake draft “snakes” around: if you have the first pick in odd rounds, you will have the last pick in even rounds.

We will have a selection for draft order: instead of simply assigning the draft order by standings, we will allow people to choose their slot in the draft order. The order for selection is the ORDER OF THE PREVIOUS SEASON’S STANDINGS. If you won the league in Year A, you get first choice for a spot in the draft order of Year B. You select a draft slot that fits into the entire snake draft’s pattern.

Draft will last 16 rounds.

Draft picks are tradable commodities; you must have a total of 16 picks for the draft, but you may trade them prior to an agreed upon trade deadline.

If you attempt to draft a player who has already been drafted, you must get drinks for people for a specified period of time.

7. Free AgencyWe will use a variation of Yahoo!'s silent auction free agency.

Starting with the regular season, once a player's game starts he goes onto waivers. The player will remain on waivers until Midnight Tuesday.

Each week, free agent money will be distributed proportionally in two ways.

A. Half the money will be distributed based on cumulative standings ($10 to last place, $9 to 9th place [...] $1 to first place).

B. Half the money will be distributed based on the previous week's finish ($10 to 0-9, $9 to 1-8 [...] $1 to 9-0).

Owners bid blindly on players (you only make one bid and then yahoo processes them on Tuesday at midnight) You can bid $0 on players during this period and you can bid the same amount on multiple players and yahoo will process based on your priority.

For our league you must drop a player in order to pick up someone even though we will have empty bench spots (they are there for multiple player trades, etc so you don't have to drop until the period rosters need to be legal)

You can make claims on more than one player but each player claimed must also have someone dropped to acquire (so I could bid $5 for player x and then $0 for player y) but I must drop 2 different players in those claims.

After the waiver period is over it is a free for all and anyone can pick up players up until their game starts.

Money that is not used is kept in the owner's budget for future weeks (i.e., unspent money accumulates for the owner throughout the season).

Money can be included in trades.

PRESEASON FREE AGENCY

Each manager is allowed one preseason drop and pickup. You may use your preseason free agent pick anytime from the end of the draft until the beginning of the selected player's team's week one game.

Preseason Free Agent picks are tradeable commodities.

In rare instances, a game might be postponed on very short notice. If a manager has a starter whose team's game gets postponed, and the manager has no backup on his roster for that starter, that manager is granted EMERGENCY FREE AGENT PICKS. The manager may immediately select a free agent replacement for the postponed starter, without needing to drop player(s) to meet roster limits. That manager is REQUIRED to start the player who was selected with the emergency free agent pick that week. The manager would have until the following week's free agent period to reduce his roster to 16 players.

8. TradeThe trading period traditionally lasts from the moment the draft is over until the start of games one week after the last week including byes.

Trades may take place between any two teams. Trade numbers do not need to be balanced: while a legal roster includes 16 players, the Hazelweird Yahoo! Page will include four empty bench positions to allow for unbalanced trades.

If you trade fewer players for more players (for example, if you trade two players to get three), you are allowed to carry the additional players for the next week, including during games. Carrying the additional players will not limit your ability to make a free agent move for that week: you must still cut one player to add one player, but the result may leave you with over 16 players on your roster. If you make an unbalanced trade in between Week 1 and Week 2, you must be trimmed back to a 16 spot roster before the start of games Week 3 (usually, this will occur during free agency).

If you trade more players for fewer players (for example, if you trade three players to get two), so that you have fewer than 16 players on your roster, you are able to make a free agent pick during the next free agency period without being required to drop somebody. You are NOT granted an immediate or extra free agent pickup to get your roster to 16 players.

9. Rule ChangesChanges to league rules are made by a democratic vote. When a rule change is proposed, everybody has a chance to make persuasive arguments to the group. If the majority of the league agrees to a rule change, the rule is changed. It is not merely a majority of people who actually vote, but a majority of the entire league required to change a rule. A person who abstains from voting on Rule Change A essentially casts a vote of “no” on Rule Change A; not voting is a vote against change.

Generally speaking, major rule changes affecting scoring system, roster requirements, or lineup requirements should not take place during season (from the beginning of the draft until the end of Week 17). Rule changes can be made at any time, but fundamental rules which would have altered a manager's actions or strategies related to the draft and/or changing and maintaining rosters should be done in the offseason.

1. All purpose yardage: Special team return yards worth 1 point per 25 yards for return player.

2. Keeper league: Keeper player at a premium of auction cost plus $15. If the player was a free agent pick-up, his value is $15. If the player was drafted at the auction, but acquired via trade, his value will remain at the auction value plus $15.

(or, in first year the player is at auction cost plus 15; in the second year, the player costs 30 over the initial auction cost, and in the third year, the player costs 60 over initial auction cost).

3. Special teams defensive points: Defense is awarded 1 point for a blocked punt/field goal.

4. Field goal bonus pts: 4 pts awarded for field goals of 50 or more yards.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Cross Country StandingsEach week, every team competes against every other team. If there are ten teams in the league, the team with the most points that week defeated everybody else, thus going 9-0. The team with the second-most points defeated eight other teams, but lost to one team, thus going 8-1. Yada Yada Yada, the team with the least points was defeated by everybody, thus going 0-9.

These are the wins and losses for the single week. For the season standings, wins and losses from every week continue to be added up. Each week, your wins and losses for that week are added to your wins and losses for the season total.

Teams scoring the same number of points in a single week have a tie, and a tie will be included in the standings for the week and the season.

2. ChampionshipThe manager of the team with the MOST WINS for the season is declared the Hazelweird Champion.1st tie-breaker: if two teams have the same number of wins, the team with the fewest losses (e.g., best winning percentage) is declared the Hazelweird Champion.2nd tie-breaker: if two teams have the same number of wins and losses, the team with the most total points is declared the Hazelweird Champion.

AP Recognition: The team with the most total points for the season is recognized with an AP title. This is not a league championship, but recognition for a secondary accomplishment.

Playoff Cup: in weeks 14-17, we will have a 10-team playoff to determine the Playoff Cup. Seeds will be based on HW standings going into week 14. In Week 14, there will be play-in games, followed by a conventional eight-team bracket in Weeks 15, 16, and 17.

Simple bracket

Week 14: 8 vs 9 and 7 vs 10 (play in games)

Week 15: 1 vs (8vs9); 4 vs 5; 3 vs 6; 2 vs (7vs10)

Week 16: Semi-finals (winners tradition bracket style)

Week 17: The Playoff Cup Champion crowned

The Playoff Cup is not the league champion, but is awarded recognition for a secondary accomplishment.

4. Roster and LineupRosters consist of 16 positions.There are NINE positions required to fill a starting lineup: QB, WR, WR, RB, TE, W/T, W/R, K, D. While you are required to draft 16 players during the draft, you are not required to draft all nine starting positions. The remaining seven positions are bench positions and can be filled with any positions. You must fill all 16 positions during the draft. After the draft, you are allowed to carry fewer than 16 players on your roster at any time. After the draft, you are no longer required to carry all nine starting positions at all times.

A weekly lineup consists of QB, WR, WR, RB, TE, W/T, W/R, K, and D. There is no specific deadline to have your entire roster for a week set. However, in order to start a particular player in Week A, you must have that player in the lineup prior to his team’s game during Week A.

IF/THEN RULE

Sometimes, league members have obligations which make it difficult or impossible to follow injury updates and make necessary lineup changes just before games. The Hazelweird League attempts as much as is reasonable to accommodate members when this situation arises. Typically, if a player's status is in doubt, we allow members to send a mass email to the league, along lines such as 'If X plays I want to start X, but if he doesn't I want to start Y.' League commissioner(s) are able to retroactively adjust lineups.

This is not a policy to be abused, and is fairly limited; we attempt to use this only for players' whose playing status is in doubt, and only when obligations prevent members from following and finding out about injuries that morning. In its limited capacity, it may be used for any game starting time or day (but is subject to the rule requiring the substitution player to play at the same time or later than the initial player).

In a "If Player X plays I'll start Player X, but if he doesn't I'll start Player Y" scenario, Player Y's game must start at the same time or later than Player X's game; you cannot substitute a player whose game occurs prior to Player X's game.“Any changes to a lineup require an If-Then list sent to the league prior to the start of a game where a player in that game will either be removed from or added to the lineup: no retroactive changes are possible without the If-Then list ahead of time. It is the responsibility of the manager to send the If-Then list if there is any possible need for a lineup change.”

TEAM KICKER RULEYou are allowed to carry multiple placekickers from the same NFL team without affecting your 16 spot roster limit. All placekickers from the same NFL team count as one roster spot.

However, you are only allowed one placekicker in your starting lineup. Therefore you must choose which kicker to start for an individual game.

5. Auction DraftAuction drafts will be the preferred format of the Hazelweird League.

Each manager begins the draft with a $300 salary cap. "A manager has $300 with which to fill his 16-man roster. Bids in whole number dollar increments may not exceed the remaining dollars in a manager's account; the minimum bid for any player is $0. Any player acquired for $0 is automatically added to the winning manager's roster with no subtraction to the manager's account. If the bidding for a player exceeds (or, if another manager in the bidding reaches) a manager's remaining money, that manager is automatically out of the bidding."

The seating order will be determined by an agreed upon system at time of the draft. When seated, we will go around the table in order, with each manager throwing out a player to be bid on, with the manager starting the bidding with a minimum bid of $0. All bidding must be made in whole numbers, an increase of at least $1. You may increase the bid by more than $1.

For each new player thrown out, each manager begins with an open cup, which declares to the other managers that he is in the bidding. At any point, a manager may flip his cup upside-down, which declares him to be out of the bidding for that player. Once your cup is flipped on the bidding for Player A, you cannot re-enter the bidding for Player A. Bidding goes around the table until one manager has made a high bid, and all other managers have flipped their cups. The player being bid on goes to the manager who bid the highest amount, and that amount is subtracted from his salary cap.

Once a manager wins the auction for a player, each manager still in the auction must flip his cup back to the open side, and another player will be thrown out by the manager whose turn is next (according to the seating order, who is sitting clockwise or counterclockwise to the last manager to throw out a name).

Once the amount of the bid reaches a manager’s Maximum Bid, he is automatically removed from the bidding (he must flip his cup).

When it is your turn to throw out a player, you are allowed to pass. If a manager passes, it is the manager next to him who gets to throw out the next player. However, if all other managers in the auction pass consecutively, the first person to pass must throw out a name.

Each manager is in the bidding until his 16 position roster is filled. When your roster is filled, you are out of the auction, which continues with the remaining managers who have not yet completed their roster. Any salary cap money remaining when you fill the roster is lost.

If you attempt to throw out a player who has already been thrown out earlier and is now on a roster, you must get drinks for people for a specified amount of time (not during actual bidding).

6. Snake DraftIn the event that an Auction draft cannot be reasonably held, we will have a Snake Draft.

A snake draft “snakes” around: if you have the first pick in odd rounds, you will have the last pick in even rounds.

We will have a selection for draft order: instead of simply assigning the draft order by standings, we will allow people to choose their slot in the draft order. The order for selection is the ORDER OF THE PREVIOUS SEASON’S STANDINGS. If you won the league in Year A, you get first choice for a spot in the draft order of Year B. You select a draft slot that fits into the entire snake draft’s pattern.

Draft will last 16 rounds.

Draft picks are tradable commodities; you must have a total of 16 picks for the draft, but you may trade them prior to an agreed upon trade deadline.

If you attempt to draft a player who has already been drafted, you must get drinks for people for a specified period of time.

7. Free AgencyWe will use a variation of Yahoo!'s silent auction free agency.

Starting with the regular season, once a player's game starts he goes onto waivers. The player will remain on waivers until Midnight Tuesday.

Everyone will get a Free Agency Acquisition Budget based on Standings ($1 for 1st place, $2 for 2nd place, etc. until $10 for 10th place) Owners bid blindly on players (you only make one bid and then yahoo processes them on Tuesday at midnight) You can bid $0 on players during this period and you can bid the same amount on multiple players and yahoo will process based on your priority

For our league you must drop a player in order to pick up someone even though we will have empty bench spots (they are there for multiple player trades, etc so you don't have to drop until the period rosters need to be legal)

You can make claims on more than one player but each player claimed must also have someone dropped to acquire (so I could bid $5 for player x and then $0 for player y) but I must drop 2 different players in those claims.

After the waiver period is over it is a free for all and anyone can pick up players up until their game starts.

Money that is not used is kept in the owners budget for future weeks and money can be included in trades.

PRESEASON FREE AGENCY

Each manager is allowed one preseason drop and pickup. You may use your preseason free agent pick anytime from the end of the draft until the beginning of the selected player's team's week one game.

Preseason Free Agent picks are tradeable commodities.

In rare instances, a game might be postponed on very short notice. If a manager has a starter whose team's game gets postponed, and the manager has no backup on his roster for that starter, that manager is granted EMERGENCY FREE AGENT PICKS. The manager may immediately select a free agent replacement for the postponed starter, without needing to drop player(s) to meet roster limits. That manager is REQUIRED to start the player who was selected with the emergency free agent pick that week. The manager would have until the following week's free agent period to reduce his roster to 16 players.

8. TradeThe trading period traditionally lasts from the moment the draft is over until the start of games one week after the last week including byes.

Trades may take place between any two teams. Trade numbers do not need to be balanced: while a legal roster includes 16 players, the Hazelweird Yahoo! Page will include four empty bench positions to allow for unbalanced trades.

If you trade fewer players for more players (for example, if you trade two players to get three), you are allowed to carry the additional players for the next week, including during games. Carrying the additional players will not limit your ability to make a free agent move for that week: you must still cut one player to add one player, but the result may leave you with over 16 players on your roster. If you make an unbalanced trade in between Week 1 and Week 2, you must be trimmed back to a 16 spot roster before the start of games Week 3 (usually, this will occur during free agency).

If you trade more players for fewer players (for example, if you trade three players to get two), so that you have fewer than 16 players on your roster, you are able to make a free agent pick during the next free agency period without being required to drop somebody. You are NOT granted an immediate or extra free agent pickup to get your roster to 16 players.

9. Rule ChangesChanges to league rules are made by a democratic vote. When a rule change is proposed, everybody has a chance to make persuasive arguments to the group. If the majority of the league agrees to a rule change, the rule is changed. It is not merely a majority of people who actually vote, but a majority of the entire league required to change a rule. A person who abstains from voting on Rule Change A essentially casts a vote of “no” on Rule Change A; not voting is a vote against change.

Generally speaking, major rule changes affecting scoring system, roster requirements, or lineup requirements should not take place during season (from the beginning of the draft until the end of Week 17). Rule changes can be made at any time, but fundamental rules which would have altered a manager's actions or strategies related to the draft and/or changing and maintaining rosters should be done in the offseason.

1. All purpose yardage: Special team return yards worth 1 point per 25 yards for return player.

2. Keeper league: Keeper player at a premium of auction cost plus $15. If the player was a free agent pick-up, his value is $15. If the player was drafted at the auction, but acquired via trade, his value will remain at the auction value plus $15.

(or, in first year the player is at auction cost plus 15; in the second year, the player costs 30 over the initial auction cost, and in the third year, the player costs 60 over initial auction cost).

3. Special teams defensive points: Defense is awarded 1 point for a blocked punt/field goal.

4. Field goal bonus pts: 4 pts awarded for field goals of 50 or more yards.